Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Heinrich Mann and the Struggle for Democracy
- 2 Hermann Hesse and the Weimar Republic
- 3 In Defense of Reason and Justice: Lion Feuchtwanger's Historical Novels of the Weimar Republic
- 4 The Case of Jakob Wassermann: Social, Legal, and Personal Crises in the Weimar Republic
- 5 Signs of the Times: Joseph Roth's Weimar Journalism
- 6 Ernst Jünger, the New Nationalists, and the Memory of the First World War
- 7 Innocent Killing: Erich Maria Remarque and the Weimar Anti-War Novels
- 8 In “A Far-Off Land”: B. Traven
- 9 Weimar's Forgotten Cassandra: The Writings of Gabriele Tergit in the Weimar Republic
- 10 Radical Realism and Historical Fantasy: Alfred Döblin
- 11 Vicki Baum: “A First-Rate Second-Rate Writer”?
- 12 Hans Fallada's Literary Breakthrough: Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben and Kleiner Mann — was nun?
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
12 - Hans Fallada's Literary Breakthrough: Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben and Kleiner Mann — was nun?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Heinrich Mann and the Struggle for Democracy
- 2 Hermann Hesse and the Weimar Republic
- 3 In Defense of Reason and Justice: Lion Feuchtwanger's Historical Novels of the Weimar Republic
- 4 The Case of Jakob Wassermann: Social, Legal, and Personal Crises in the Weimar Republic
- 5 Signs of the Times: Joseph Roth's Weimar Journalism
- 6 Ernst Jünger, the New Nationalists, and the Memory of the First World War
- 7 Innocent Killing: Erich Maria Remarque and the Weimar Anti-War Novels
- 8 In “A Far-Off Land”: B. Traven
- 9 Weimar's Forgotten Cassandra: The Writings of Gabriele Tergit in the Weimar Republic
- 10 Radical Realism and Historical Fantasy: Alfred Döblin
- 11 Vicki Baum: “A First-Rate Second-Rate Writer”?
- 12 Hans Fallada's Literary Breakthrough: Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben and Kleiner Mann — was nun?
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
SIEGFRIED KRACAUER, IN AN ESSAY INDie neue Rundschau in June 1931, identified a new type of writer in Germany, one no longer devoted to absolute values, who considered that the role of a writer was to be a social and political commentator. The writer Hans Fallada, whose Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben (Farmers, Functionaries, and Fireworks) had appeared in March of that year, was just such a writer.
Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben was the novel that established the literary reputation of Hans Fallada, the nom de plume adopted by Rudolf Ditzen (1893–1947). Thanks to the critical acclaim this work received, Ditzen was in such demand for short stories and reviews of contemporary literature that by September 1931 he was finally in a position to fulfill a lifelong ambition to become a full-time writer. Although not a great commercial success, Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben gave Ditzen sufficient financial security to enable him to pay off debts arising from activities that had twice landed him in jail on counts of embezzlement in the 1920s. In terms of style, themes, and characterization, this novel paved the way for Ditzen's subsequent literary success, notably with Kleiner Mann — was nun? (1932; Little Man — What Now? 1996). Günter Caspar, who edited Fallada's works for the Aufbau publishing house from 1964 to 1998, describes Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben as the best novel written about small-town life in Germany during the Weimar Republic.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- German Novelists of the Weimar RepublicIntersections of Literature and Politics, pp. 253 - 268Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006